De quoi la bioéconomie est-elle le nom ? Genèse d’un nouveau référentiel d’action publique.

Throughout the 20th century, bioeconomy has been theorized from different perspectives in various academic fields: studies of population dynamics in biology, modelling for natural resource management, approach to economy through an entropy-based perspective such as Georgescu-Roegen’s. In the early 2000’s the bioeconomy was promoted as an institutional motto by the OECD, the aim being to develop the economy of biotechnologies. It was then taken up by the European Commission, which made it its flagship for the promotion of sustainable development through an industrial use of biomass as a renewable resource substituting biotechnologies for fossil fuel. Bioeconomy entered the EU agenda through innovation and research policies, whose definition and orientations have been largely influenced by industrial actors under the leadership of biotechnology and chemistry firms. Given its potential impact on the future of agriculture regarding research priorities and norms, the emergence of the bioeconomy triggers serious tensions between research and agricultural policy actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]